ANNAPOLIS, Md. – RV Navy wrestling team opens its 117th season with a dual against No. 25 Pittsburgh on Saturday at Fitzgerald Field House in Pittsburgh, Pa. The Mids and Panthers will take the mat at 2 p.m.

The Navy-Pitt dual will be broadcasted on the ESPN+ and ACCNx platforms. Both platforms are a subscription-based streaming service that requires patrons to sign-up for monthly or yearly plans prior to tuning into the event.

Projected Navy Lineup

125: Nick Treaster / Jack Bergmann

133: Brendan Ferretti / Hunter Heflin

141: No. 9 Josh Koderhandt / Adam Heckman

149: Kaemen Smith / Nicholas Vafiadis

157: Jonathan Ley / Charlie Evans

165: Tyler Sagi / Elijah Penton

174: No. 22 Danny Wask / Sammy Starr

184: Zyan Hall / Daniel Williams

197: Payton Thomas

285: Alistair Larson / Ben Farabaugh

Mids In the Rankings (InterMat / FloWrestling)

141: Josh Koderhandt – 9 / 12

174: Danny Wask – 22 / 20

Navy Notes
  • Navy enters its fifth season under head coach Cary Kolat. The Mids have posted a 24-18 record under his guidance.

  • Kolat also begins his 11th season as a collegiate head coach. He owns a 63-58 career record.

  • Navy opens its season with a dual for the second-consecutive season. The Mids knocked off No. 23 Illinois last season, 23-18, to begin the 2023-24 campaign.  

• Navy compiled an 8-6 record last season, its best outing since the 2019-20 season (8-6). The Mids went 2-3 against Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association (EIWA) opponents in 2023-24 with victories over American (38-0) and Bucknell (34-7). Navy also wrestled in three tournaments during the regular season.

• The Mids finished in sixth place out of 17 teams at the 2024 EIWA Championship. Five Midshipmen posted podium finishes in the event, led by 141-pound champion Josh Koderhandt.

• Five Mids qualified for the 2024 NCAA Championship based on their placements at the league Championship. Andrew Cerniglia (165), Grady Griess (285), David Key (184), Koderhandt (141) and Danny Wask (174) each earned at least two victories at nationals. Key became the 65th Midshipmen to earn All-America honors.

• Brendan Ferretti, Koderhandt and Wask are the lone returners who have experience in the NCAA Championships.

• Two Mids enter the season nationally ranked by InterMat. Koderhandt is Navy's highest-ranked wrestler at No. 9 in his respective weight class. Wask cracks the top-25 entering as the No. 22 174-pounder.

• Only six Mids - Cael Crebs, Ferretti, Koderhandt, Kaemen Smith, Sammy Starr and Wask - enter the season with at least 20 career victories. Koderhandt leads the team with 79 total victories and 28 dual victories.

• Wask led Navy's freshman class with 25 victories in an impressive 2023-24 campaign. The Wantage, N.J., native was one of only 26 true freshmen to qualify for nationals.

Koderhandt Named Team Captain

• Koderhandt was selected as the captain of the 2024-25 Navy wrestling team.

• He won the 110th individual EIWA title in program history. His placement earned him a spot at the NCAA Championship for the third time in his career. Koderhandt entered the championship as the highest seeded Midshipmen (#11) and went 3-2 at the tournament.

• The Belleville, Ill., native led the Mids with 12 dual victories and a 5-0 record against EIWA foes. Additionally, he was tied second for overall victories (25). The senior knocked off 10 ranked wrestlers and matched his career-high victories by fall last season (8).

• Koderhandt represented Navy at the National Wrestling Coaches Association (NWCA) All-Star Classic. He became the 16th mid to wrestle in the event and the first since Joe Baker (133), who wrestled in an exhibition match in 2008.

Meet the Newcomers
  • Coach Kolat welcomed 13 freshmen to the team this season.

• Dylan Elmore (165) wrestled for Saint Thomas Aquinas High School in Baltimore, Md., where he led the team to back-to-back state championships his junior and senior seasons. He spent the 2023-24 academic year at the Naval Academy Prep School (NAPS).

• Payton Thomas (197) was one of the top 195-pounders in the country coming out of high school in the Wrestling Insider Newsmagazine (WIN) rankings. Residing out of Moore, Okla., Thomas won the 6A Oklahoma Secondary School Activities Association (OSSAA) state title at 190-pounds and earned OSSAA All-State recognition. He was a two-time OSSAA conference champion his junior and senior year. He spent the 2023-24 academic year at NAPS.

• Nick Treaster (125) compiled a career record of 144-5 and was a four-time state champion for Newton High School in Newton, Kan. Treaster led Newton to four state championships and served as team captain for two of those seasons.

Other Mids Competing this Weekend
• Coach Kolat will also send 18 wrestlers to compete at the Clarion Open on Sunday in Clarion, Pa. The tournament is scheduled to begin at 9 a.m.

Projected Pittsburgh Lineup

125- Nick Babin

133- Vincent Santaniello

141- Anthony Santaniello

149- Finn Solomon/Kade Brown

157- Dylan Evans

165- Kelin Laffey

174- Luca Augustine

184- Reece Heller

197- Mac Stout

285- Dayton Pitzer

Scouting Pittsburgh
  • The Panthers enter the opening weekend as the No. 25-ranked team in the National Wrestling Coaches Association (NWCA) preseason poll. Pittsburgh is one of five teams from the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) ranked in the top 25.

• Eighth-year head coach Keith Gavin owns a 58-40 record with the Panthers. Followed by its second-straight 10-win season, Pitt is coming off a season that saw seven individual winners at the NCAA Wrestling Championships for the first time in a decade. Pitt finished 26th overall as a team at nationals and have finished in the top 30 in four consecutive seasons.

• The Panthers are a veteran led team as they return five of their seven NCAA qualifiers from a season ago.

• InterMat ranked seven Pitt wrestlers in the top 33 of their respective weight classes, four of which are rated in the top 20. No. 12-ranked Dayton Pitzer (285) earned the Panthers best ranking. Last season, he qualified for the NCAA Championships for the first time in his career and finished third at the ACC Championship.

• Along with Pitzer the six other Pitt wrestlers ranked are: No. 28 Nick Babin (125); No. 31 Vincent Santaniello (133); No. 29 Finn Solomon (149); No. 19 Luca Augustine (174); No. 18 Reece Heller (184) and No. 14 Mac Stout (197).

History Against the Panthers
• Saturday's dual will be the 42nd meeting between Navy and Pittsburgh. In the most recent matchup last season, the Mids won four of the first five bouts and pulled away with a fall victory in the 184-pound match to beat the Panthers, 21-12, in Annapolis, Md. It was the Midshipmen first victory over Pitt since 1997.

• Navy leads the all-time series 26-13-2.

Up Next
The Mids compete in Annapolis for the first-time next Saturday in the Navy Tri Meet at Alumni Hall. Navy will face Drexel (1:30 p.m.) and North Carolina (3 p.m.)